The Hungarian Forint is used in very large quantities ($1 USD = 218 Ft) so the government recycles a few tons of it every year. After shredding it and bundling it into bricks, the currency is shipped to charitable organizations to help with their heating cost.

3 U Penn students developed the µWave (microwave, get it?), an Arduino based kitchen hack that plays Youtube videos while you wait for noms. Once you set the cooking time the program goes to Youtube and finds a highly-rated video for the exact length. Read more about it at the project's website.